Burkle Meets With NBA In Effort Keep Kings In Sacramento

Ron Burkle met for two hours Thursday with National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern. The meeting between Burkle and Stern is a good sign as the City tries to come up with a bid that is good enough to keep the team.

Burkle, who made his fortune in supermarkets, and at least two
other wealthy potential investors have been in talks with the City
of Sacramento about buying the 65 percent of the team currently
owned by the Maloof family and Colorado businessman Robert
Hernreich.

The majority owners have already agreed to sell their shares to
a group of Seattle investors. But, the NBA may side with
Sacramento if an ownership group can match or come very close to
the Seattle offer. New buyers must also agree to keep the
team in Sacramento, and participate in the construction of a new
downtown arena.

Kings minority owner Bob Cook will have his shares auctioned off
this spring, but he is trying to keep the team in Sacramento.
Cook has told multiple media outlets that he has contacted a Bay
Area attorney to facilitate a meeting between Oracle founder Larry
Ellison and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

Ellison has attempted to purchase three NBA teams -Charlotte,
Memphis, and Golden State in the past two years.

Mayor Johnson was asked Thursday if Ellison had had any contact
with the City. Johnson said, "I don't want to get all in to
whom all we spoke to or whose bids that we're entertaining at this
point. I feel like it's my responsibility to protect their
interests. As I said yesterday, we're making very good
progress and every discussion is very serious and I do believe we
will be in position next week to unveil who the two big or three or
four that we've been looking at over time and who ultimately we're
going to go forward with."